[July 24] Old City of Acre, Israel -- A record 2,743 people danced
for seven minutes straight holding hands in a human chain that stretched
down Hagana Street in Acre's famed Old City, smashing the previous
record of 1,700 set in Toronto a few years ago.

The
Debke is a six-step dance that is performed while holding hands
in a line.

Photo:
Israeli Arabs dancing the largest and longest 'Debka' routine in
world history in Acre on Sunday. (Yaron Kaminsky/ Haaretz)

For years it has been a mainstay of weddings and communal
celebrations in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and even Turkey and Iraq.

Participants
came from over 30 Debke clubs located all over Israel, with shuttle
busses bringing them from as far as Rahat in the Negev and villages
on the Lebanon border.

Yihye
Abu Juma'ah of Dir-al Assad, a coach for 12 Debke troupes, was in
charge of organizing Sunday's record-breaking dance routine. He
stated that the dance is over 500 years old and that to his knowledge
there are no Jewish dancing troupes in Israel that perform the Debke,
only distant variations on the Arab folk dance.

The
record-setting event, broadcast live for two hours on the cultural
events channel of the Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera, was the
first time in history that any Israeli Arab has entered the Book of World Records.